Simple Plan concert review
Published in The Calgary Herald on November 27, 2005
Review
Simple Plan, Hedley, Planet Smashers and Jessica Beach at the Saddledome Sunday
night. Attendance: 6,500. Rating: HH out of five
Did you stay in last night? Maybe watch the Grey Cup? Or Family Guy? You might
have even strung up those Christmas lights you’ve been meaning to.
Any one of those would have been more entertaining than a pretty boring
four-act bill at the Saddledome that included Montreal pop-punks Simple Plan
and Canadian Idol contestant Jacob Hoggard’s Hedley.
Simple Plan was just. . . bad. Not in that cool “we-can’t-play-our-instruments”
punk way, but more in the “boy-band-who-write-their-own-songs” way. I call it
“Disney Channel punk.”
It may have just been coincidence that the titles of the songs they played
echoed sentiments running in my head — Shut Up, The Worst Day Ever, God Must
Hate Me, etc.
To be fair, though, the quintet has improved since they last played Calgary.
They’re louder, tighter, and harmonize better. But they’re still bogged down by
weak, three-chord material that gets really grating by the 90-minute mark.
But the screaming crowd, most of whom won’t be voting in this upcoming
election, lapped it all up.
“You guys are pretty crazy,” frontman Pierre Bouvier said to them. “Just
remember, the crazier you get, the crazier we get!”
The audience roared and waved glowsticks as Simple Plan played Jump, Addicted,
Me Against The World, Welcome To My Life, I’m Just A Kid, and I’ll Do Anything.
Their best song was a decent cover of The Turtles’ Happy Together, one of the
few tunes the kids didn’t know the words to.
The most entertaining part of Hedley’s set was frontman Jacob Hoggard’s daring
outfit. Sporting ill-fitting hot pink shorts, a red t-shirt that read “I only
party with the best” and a painters hat, he seeemed to spend too much time
aping the dude from Billy Talent.
“You guys are crazy out there, you’re psychos,” Hoggard said to the crowd
before playing On My Own. “There’s two things we like about Calgary — the
psychos and the horses.”
Er, yeah.
Opening the night was local act Jessica Beach, who didn’t get much attention
given the Grey Cup was in overtime on TV screens throughout the arena.
Montreal ska group Planet Smashers were somewhat better, coming out in matching
orange jumpsuits and, well, jumping around a lot in them. But the sound on
their monitors was turned down (so as not to outdo Hedley and Simple Plan), and
their set came off more like bland muzak or ska-lite.
Surfing in Tofino was decent, but the only cheers they recieved seemed to be
Pavlovian responses to the questions, “Who’s here to see Simple Plan?” and
“Who’s here to see Hedley?”
